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in the voyages of increasing numbers of privately-sponsored
sea rescue vessels;
in the recent mission of the Italian Navy; or
in the current efforts of units of the US Navy to locate and rescue refugees in distress on the South China Sea.
The record has shown beyond any doubt that, despite these discouraging prospects, and despite the fact that unknown thousands of Indochinese can be assumed to have died in process of fleeing, they have come anyway in the hundreds of thousands. Against this background, therefore, it is surely unrealistic to suggest that any single effort to save lives may have acted as a significant magnet, The magnet of course, has always been and will continue to be the promise and the hope of a new life in a new country.
A brief review of key new facts of the boat refugee flow
substantiates, I submit, this analysis.
I would add, in this connection, that no one sitting around
this table today has adduced any concrete evidence to support the perhaps understandable concern that the activities of the Seventh Fleet may have acted as a magnet or an instrument to refugee flight. If any delegation is in a position to supply such evidence, we would, of course, wish to receive it.
First, the refugee flow, as we all know, has diminished dramatically in July over the preceding months. Only 1,559 refugees arrived in Malaysia (from a high point of 15,000 in May), and Hong Kong arrivals were down from 21,000 / 20,000
arrivals in May and June to 9,193 in July. We have every reason to believe that, given Vietnam's "moratorium" policy, these